Due to the results of a research of middle-aged men, seen at two Veterans Administration facilities, smoking cannabis can increase a risk of bladder cancer.
A group of scientists of the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, Dr. Martha K. Terris and her team announced in the medical journal Urology that smoking cannabis “might be an even more potent stimulant” of malignancy than smoking cigarettes.
Due to the results of a research of middle-aged men, seen at two Veterans Administration facilities, smoking cannabis can increase a risk of bladder cancer.
A group of scientists of the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, Dr. Martha K. Terris and her team announced in the medical journal Urology that smoking cannabis “might be an even more potent stimulant” of malignancy than smoking cigarettes.
According to Terris and her colleagues, head and neck and lung cancers are connected with using marijuana. The evidence reveals that malignancies associated with marijuana may hit at an earlier age.
To establish if smoking cannabis might also be connected with bladder cancer, Terris and her team examined 52 men suffering from the disease who were all younger than 60 years, along with 104 age-matched controls.
Amongst the men suffering from bladder cancer, 88.5 percent were habitual cannabis smokers, in comparison with 69.2 percent the controls.
The scientists discovered that the average quantity of using cannabis also was higher in the men suffering from bladder cancer. The cancer group reported an average of 48 joint-years per patient, which means that the particular men smoked the equivalent of 1 joints a day for 48 years, or 2 joints a day for 24 years, etc. In the comparison group it was an average of 28.5 joint-years.
Using of tobacco was also high among the survey subjects, as more than 90 percent of the men in both groups reported to smoke cigarettes. It made impossible to find any connection between using tobacco and cancer risk.
The scientists emphasized that Marijuana has longer half-life than tobacco (up to 60 hours versus 12 hours), is smoked without any filter and is kept longer in the lungs. All this marijuana features mean that it can be more carcinogenic than tobaco.
Marijuana also reduces contractility of bladder, which could increase retention of urine and thus increase exposure of the bladder to compounds of marijuana - the scientists say.
Younger patients, who notice symptoms suggesting bladder cancer, but are not usually recognized at high risk, “should be questioned about a history of marijuana use.” - the scientists warn. If their answer is positive, it might be better to make further tests - the researchers state.
